


Avatar Done Quick

by voidEnthusiast



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Video Game World, Gen, Video Game Mechanics, speedrun, sure as hell not about the characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:33:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27141811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voidEnthusiast/pseuds/voidEnthusiast
Summary: “I know Avatar is a very hot game, nowadays, with the re-upload of Youtube user aangtsurphu’s absolutely classic Let’s Play, and all the cool internet personalities doing their own videos on it. That series got so many fans into this amazing game, and it rekindled the interests of plenty of people whose childhood it practically defined, including myself. But it seems like no one, well, almost no one, has really been trying for a speedrun.”
Kudos: 12





	Avatar Done Quick

**Author's Note:**

> This one might not make much sense, honestly. Keep in mind that it's a transcript, so all the text is dialogue and sound.

**Transcript of a Twitch stream taking place on XX/XX/20XX**

-Well, hello, everyone. I see there are a few dozen of you watching right now. Today, I am going to be speedrunning, or attempting to speedrun, Avatar.

I know Avatar is a very hot game, nowadays, with the re-upload of Youtube user aangtsurphu’s absolutely classic Let’s Play, and all the cool internet personalities doing their own videos on it. That series got so many fans into this amazing game, and it rekindled the interests of plenty of people whose childhood it practically defined, including myself. But no one, well, almost no one, has really been trying for a speedrun.

There’s a reason for this, of course- it’s just so daunting. Playing this game properly, along the so-called ‘story mode’, can easily take you upwards of 100 hours. For context, the current WR is about 3 hours.

I have a plan to do it in two and a half. 

I’ve been practicing-- hey, thanks to GhostlyTrickster1996 for the donation of $10! I really appreciate it.

OK, let’s get going. New Game... earliest possible start date... selecting the Avatar himself as our player character...

I think I’ll rename him Aang this round. Got to honor the legendary hero himself. Hey, did you know aangtsurphu is actually still making Avatar videos? He does achievement guides and stuff. Very cool.

Alright... are we ready? Well, I am. Time starts... now.

Not much to do for the first bit of the game. The first few minutes are an unskippable cutscene- see, the water siblings are doing their thing. That gives me a bit of time to explain the challenge.

This category of speedrun is called Pacifist%. The requirements are to play as the Avatar, starting at the earliest possible start date, don’t kill anyone except in the Avatar State, and defeat Ozai by taking his bending. But restrictions breed creativity, you know!

Alright, cutscene’s ending. Yep, here we are. Gonna grab the siblings, load them onto Appa, and get flying out of the South Pole, due... ah... north by northeast.

The dialogue trees here are pretty simple to click through. You want to choose the friendly option with Sokka every time for maximum loyalty. Same with Katara. You can choose the flirty option for more loyalty points for her, but be sure to only do it once! 

OK, checking their loyalties now in the Team Avatar menu, Katara’s at 37 loyalty and Sokka’s at 23. This is basically the best we can hope for when we lead with kidnapping them. You’re really only in danger when a member’s loyalty dips below 10.

I see our destination below, Zhao’s boat. Gonna... swoop down, order Katara to get a fist of water ready- glide,  _ grab _ Zhao- OK, good, perfect. Let’s do Joint Bending with Katara to keep him in the water. Let his head out of the water, we need this [profanity removed by algorithm]  _ alive _ to trigger the End of Book 1 event.

This does count as being in combat, because technically, Sideburn Man here can still firebend. It just does nothing in the water. Our waterbending experience- the Avatar and Katara’s, I mean- is steadily ticking up as we fly. Let’s point Appa north now. Going towards Omashu. You can guess what I’m going to be doing there.

OK, I see Zhao just tried to open dialogue. The thing to do here is don’t respond. Let the event time out. Just move his dialogue box to the corner of the screen.

Oh, hey, thanks to xxvoid_cowboyxx for the donation of $15! They sent a message to go with it...

[text-to-speech]  _ Avatar speedrun. Nice. Don’t forget about Jeong Jeong The Deserter, he’s usually a better Firebending teacher than anyone else. _

Ha, I haven’t forgotten about my man JJ. No way. Actually, with the strat I have going here I only need a couple levels in Fire, so I won’t really be getting taught by anyone.

Let’s look at our bending skill. Aang’s already at level 5 in Water, since he’s technically been using a bending attack in combat this whole time, so we can stop bending right now and let Katara take over. Got to preserve his stamina.

Here’s Omashu way up ahead. The king’s willingness to help the player is very RNG-dependent; it’s something like a 60% chance he agrees to teach you earthbending. If he says no I’ll have to restart. Or maybe I can try to rush my way through the Blind Bandit’s infamous dialogue tree later instead.

Let’s take the glider, get to the palace, and fly in through Bumi’s window. Here we go. Did you know: most of his dialogue is selected at random from a pool of options?

[muttering] Avatar... yes... loyalty up 2... a cabbage, sure, I guess... no trials... mad genius. Perfect. Get some earth... perfect-er.

OK, use a team request to have him bend up some rocks, and let’s carry him up to Appa. 

The timing here’s got to be perfect. Bumi restrains Zhao’s legs and elbows- not the hands, he needs to be able to sort of bend so we stay in combat- with the rocks, Katara drops the water at the  _ same _ time. Three, two, one- go.

Very, very nice. Lady Luck is smiling upon me today.

Let’s train ourself in earthbending. Assist Bumi... rack up a total of one Earth XP. Then, stop assisting, and use Joint Bending. Cool.

Alright, that was the easy part of this run. I think everything is going great so far. Checking the time, we’re at 17 minutes, so we’ll get to the Northern Water Tribe at about 23. A bit behind my best time. Oh well, I’m confident enough about the really complicated parts.

[whistling]

OK, I see a Fire Nation carrier ship down there to the west. Let’s slow down so they can follow our course north.

And... earthbending’s at Level 5. Let’s leave the task of restraining Sideburn Man to Bumi.

Quick loyalty check. Got to make sure no one tries to jump off the bison. Sokka is at 21, Katara at 42, Bumi already at 76 because he joins with 70 for some reason. Cool. 

Let’s speed through the bad options in Sokka’s dialogue to get him down to exactly 11 so we can leave him at the pole and make Appa’s load a bit lighter. I guess 12 is fine. And... flirt with Katara one more time, and go for a new positive dialogue path. She’s up to 63 loyalty now, so she won’t try to stay with Sokka.

Here we are. North Pole. Let’s land. Oh, the ship’s nearly here.

If we let Zhao onto there and then sink it while it’s in Northern waters, that counts as fending off the invasion for the purposes of the end-of-book trigger. Let’s toss him with our earthbending.

Got to get the trajectory... just... right... YES! Perfect! 

Swoop down there, waterbend a few holes into the hull, swoop back up... let Sokka off to save weight and make the bison a bit faster, and get going. We are needed in Ba Sing Se.

OK, I see the book-ending event here. Immediate side effect of +10 loyalty for everyone in Team Avatar, and +15 waterbending experience points for Katara and the Avatar. Let’s look at their loyalty scores now.

Katara’s at... 23? Whoa, I guess she really did want to go with Sokka. Bumi is  _ chillin _ ’ at 86 loyalty. Good for him. 

**Begin Book 2**

We need to go  _ around _ the Foggy Swamp and the desert on our way to Ba Sing Se, because both of them have [profanity removed by algorithm] long cutscenes that cut into our time. The swamp is fully pointless, I’m not exactly in sore need of an earthbending teacher. Also, Gaoling is just a time sink, even when you know what you’re doing.

[singing] It’s a long long way to Ba Sing Se, and the hmm mmh hmmm hmmmm... uh, I’m not sure how this bit goes, but the next part is like... BUT THE GIRLS IN THE CITY THEY LOOK SO PRETTYYY!

And by  _ the girls _ , I mean King Kuei. We need him for the End of Book 2 trigger. We’re basically rushing to Book 3, since that’s when you learn energybending.

I see a Fire-occupied Earth village down there in the countryside. I think I’ll swoop down and steal one of the Fire Nation soldiers at random. Get them to teach me a bit of firebending in a fight.

OK, got one! I’ll put earthbending restraints on him. He’s got the... beautiful, poetic name of “Fire Nation Commanding Officer - Liaodong Township.” I’m going to open up the dialogue with him, and- WHOA! Look at that option, that only shows up if you’re talking to a White Lotus member!  _ No one else _ offers to play Pai Sho!

Oh man. Oh man.

This guy is definitely randomly generated, so that was... impossibly lucky. Like, I think it’s a 0.1% chance that a random soldier would be in the Lotus. I think this guy is gonna be our new team member.

I’m going to take the White Lotus option, and also introduce him to Bumi. He is a grandmaster, and we might get this guy on our team.

_ [sound of mouse clicking rapidly] _

Yep, a new member of Team Avatar! He’s just a generic officer, so his name will be randomly generated. Yeah. This guy is “Yan Xishan”, apparently. Well, Yan, welcome aboard our little flying catastrophe.

Checking the time. We’re at 45 minutes, a bit ahead of schedule.

On the way to Ba Sing Se, let’s learn firebending. We could easily do this in under 100 total minutes, since we don’t need to seek out Iroh or JJ. This is really a one-time opportunity. This is it! This is  _ the run _ !

I should probably have him ditch his armor. We’re going to be doing lots of flying, and Appa’s load has to be as light as possible.

...

We’re approaching the walls of the City.

Here we are, Ba Sing Se. The impenetrable city. Except not, ‘cause, you know, we’re about to be kidnapping the Earth King and showing him horrific scenes of war. Fun times all around. 

The Earth Palace has all these guards and you can’t really swoop into it, but there is an efficient way to get in and out: Clip through the walls. Their brick texture is actually in the 3D models, not just an image.

Just got to run into them at the right angle...

It seems like he and Long Feng are in the throne room. I’ll restrain Feng quickly, and make sure to tell Kuei it’s a matter of national emergency  _ while _ he’s still in the throne room.

Then, grab him, clip back through the wall- ooh, first try!- swoop back up to the bison. We need to navigate through his dialogue in exactly the right way so we won’t have to lose time going back to BSS. 

Load him onto Appa, perfect. Let’s go over to the frontlines and watch the war!

Yeah, see that, Kuei? War! Wow, the world isn’t a utopia! I swear, this guy is literally just the Buddha. Especially in the default story mode.

Since he knows the war’s real and we’re out of Ba Sing Se, the end-of-book event should trigger right about... now.

**Begin Book 3**

OK, as the book starts, we grab the air glider out of our inventory and get going. Have Bumi set Appa on a course to outside the Caldera, and tell him to drop off Kuei as soon as possible. Then we can fly off to Ember Island on our own. Be careful to avoid stormy patches, we absolutely can’t lose time on that event chain. 

...

Not much to do right now. We’re about 15 minutes ahead of time since we didn’t need to find a firebending teacher. It’ll be a while until we’re there...

Thanks to Absolute Annihilation for the $5 donation! Man, you guys have been so generous this stream. 

[text-to-speech]  _ just want to warn u. how are u gonna get the lion turtle event if ur not in mental turmoil? avatar still has staunch pacifist trait an dstuff _

Oh no! I nearly forgot! We need to open up the Questioning Pacifism event chain through dialogue. Uhhh, I guess I can start it from the Spiritual Menu. Let’s seek an audience with Kyoshi while flying. Probably don’t want to go for Roku this run- the solstice is still weeks away, it’s been like two days in-game.

[profanity removed by algorithm]. I forgot you can’t speed through Avatar dialogue. Get used to lots of somber spirit talk, everyone!

Yeah, this is going... sluggishly. I’m gonna do my voices for them.

_ Blah blah blah. Killing is fun and good. I killed Chin, and I  _ [profanity removed by algorithm]  _ liked it. _

_ Nooo, I’m a coward and too holy to harm a fly! Never mind that entire boat I sank, haha! _

_ Blah blah spirits, blah blah bending. I’m Kyoshi and I like VIOLENCE. _

_ Ohh, there must be another way to defeat Ozai without killing the poor little genocidal maniac on the verge of global conquest. I wonder what it could be. HMMMM! _

_ Nooo... you have to bitchslap him... even just a little? _

OK, I think that’s enough spiritual growth to get the lion-turtle event. I just want to reiterate again how terrible the spirit communing mechanic is. It seriously needs a revamp. Hashtag SPIRIT UPDATE hashtag NOW. 

We just need to fly around for a while around the coast of the island. 

I... I  _ think _ I’m a high enough level bender to get the lion turtle?

If we’ve... yeah, there he is.

Let’s fly down there. Time for a 10-minute unskippable cutscene about wandering through the wilderness. I’m gonna go outside and get some fresh air for a minute.

_ [faint computer audio] _

...

Still a couple minutes left.

Man, this light show is kind of trippy. It’s all spinning and weird. But now we can suck out Ozai’s  _ soul! _ Yeah!

Alright, I avoid using glitches most of the time, but this one is just too good to pass up. If you clip through this particular seam in the Lion Turtle’s shell, you can launch the Avatar out at an insanely high speed.

Just got to hit the exact angle-

Wheeee!

I am like 20 minutes ahead of my best time. This is basically ridiculous.

OK, I see Appa just up ahead. Let’s fly him into the Caldera and end this war.

We’re on defense duty right now, deflecting fire projectiles. Nearing the palace... I’ll leave Yan and Katara to hold off the guards. Also Azula. You see Azula down there? There she is.

Here comes the best moment of the run. Appa, smash that palace.

Alright, Bumi jumps off and restrains everyone in the building with rock shackles. Having a high-level friend  _ is _ useful- who knew?

I’ll make a beeline for Ozai. He’s there- HA! He’s also restrained? [profanity removed by algorithm], thanks Bumi! No need for a boss fight this time around! Let’s beat him up a bit before we go for the soul.

That should be enough.

Let’s press that shiny black button and get his bending. I love how it looks against the UI.

Just appreciating the music that plays right now. I think it’s one of the best pieces of the whole game, personally.  _ Hmmm, mmmh mm mmm, mm mmm... _

And there we go!

Final time: two hours, four minutes, forty-four seconds. World record!

**Author's Note:**

> I might make more of these. Tell me if you liked this one! Constructive criticism is encouraged!


End file.
